PEE-WEE HERMAN READIES 'PLAYHOUSE'

By PETER J. BOYER

Published: September 4, 1986

Correction Appended

In a converted loft in SoHo, the hard economic realities of network television have come to an unexpected junction. There, the comedian Paul Reubens - a k a Pee-wee Herman -is busily preparing his singular act to become a weekly series on CBS.

What is unusual about the project - ''Pee-wee's Playhouse'' - is that it is being produced at a cost of about $325,000 an episode, roughly the price tag of a prime-time situation comedy. But it is being made for that traditionally low-priority area of the network schedule referred to as the ''Saturday morning ghetto.''

''Pee-wee's Playhouse'' represents a major risk for CBS, coming as it does at a time of reduced revenues and severe belt-tightening, a time when costs across the board are being closely scrutinized. But network executives consider the program a major effort in the fight to strengthen the increasingly tentative hold on the television audience. The show will be an amalgam of live action and high-tech animation in a time period almost entirely devoted to cut-rate cartoons.

''We have got to distinguish ourselves from what is on syndication,'' said Judy Price, vice president of children's programs at CBS. ''This is exactly what the networks have got to do to survive in a marketplace that has so many other options today.''

As with all other areas of the schedule, the share of the children's market among the three networks has dwindled with the onslaught of nationally syndicated programs playing on independent stations. The syndicated shows, many of which are based on toy products, have siphoned a sizable portion of the $250 million or so in advertising that once went mostly to the networks. A Different Look

The networks' response to the challenge, in the main, has been to offer more of the same on Saturday morning. ''Pee-wee's Playhouse'' will, at the very least, be different.

For one thing, as Mr. Reubens points out, ''There aren't any real people on TV on Saturday morning.'' ''Pee-wee's Playhouse'' will be the only live-action network program on the air.

The show itself will be a slightly amended version of Mr. Reubens's Pee-wee act - the odd adventures of the exceedingly weird man-child given to such exclamations as, ''I love my toys - but not enough to marry them!'' The playhouse is a surreal fantasy place - part live action, part animation - of talking chairs, strange animals and a mousehole containing dinosaurs.

The program, to which CBS has made a 13-week commitment, is co-produced by Mr. Reubens's Pee-wee Productions and Broadcast Video, a hip animation house best known for its work on the MTV identification spots and in commercials - painstakingly produced animation that stands in contrast to the cheaper, so-called reduced animation that has defined children's programs for two decades. A Weekly 'Secret Word'

Mr. Reubens says that he wants his show ''to expose kids to wacky creative stuff,'' which, undoubtedly, it will. For example, there will be the weekly ''secret word,'' such as ''door.'' Every time they hear the word, Pee-wee's viewers are instructed to scream as loudly as they can.

''Can you imagine, 30 million kids, screaming at the sound of the secret word?'' asked Peter Rosenthal, a partner in Broadcast Video. ''Mom and Dad are going to jump out of bed.''

That is just the idea. ''Pee-wee's Playhouse'' is conceived in the tradition of long-ago children's shows, such as the Soupy Sales program, that took on cult status among children but often received the endorsement of only the most understanding parents. ''It's of a fashion that yuppies will appreciate,'' said Ms. Price. Indeed, all parties hope that the program will reach into the adult audience, and there is even talk of playing reruns at another hour, such as late at night.

It would be one way of reducing the network's risk. CBS is not only paying a prime-time price for ''Playhouse,'' but it received only a two-year commitment from Mr. Reubens, a factor that, in reducing the number of available reruns, effectively raises the cost per episode.

But Ms. Price maintains it is a risk worth taking. Young viewers now spending time with MTV, the network hopes, can be coaxed into the habit of watching CBS. ''We've got to reverse that image that exists, the 'Saturday morning ghetto,' '' Ms. Price says. ''That's what's important to us, that we somehow make a distinction. If we do that with Pee-wee, it can change attitudes. It will be worth spending the money.''